Apple eyes tamper-resistant hardware

Aharon Etengoff, 11th December 2009

Apple has submitted a patent application for a "specialized label" that would allow the company to detect "unauthorized" tampering of various devices.

"Unfortunately, many users open their electronic devices to attempt to repair, reverse engineer or even hack various things within the device," Club Cupertino stated in patent application obtained by AppleInsider.

?"Of course, one drawback to such unauthorized access is that one or more internal items may be destroyed or compromised, thus limiting the ability of the manufacturer or provider to provide effective servicing of the device."

According to Apple, the specialized label could potentially be attached to multiple locations within a device. ??As such, disassembling marked hardware components would rip, damage or affect the label.

?"Although such damage may be noticed by the user after opening the device, any repair or replacement of the torn or damaged label would ordinarily be difficult after the fact." ??